Hero sandwich (August 9, 1947)

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(This continues research into the origin of the "hero" sandwich.  I'd previously presented a brief 1947 item, a brief 1949 item, and a 1951 article from the NYHT--ed.)

   From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 9 August 1947, pg. 9, col. 6:

_1,000 Grab Hero Snacks Daily_
_For Hearty Lunch on Ninth Ave._

(PHOTO CAPTION:  A thousand heros a day are built for the Ninth Avenue lunch trade by Manganaro, the grocer)

_Sandwich Is Built With_
   _Half French Loaf, Split_
   _Lengthwise, and Fillings_

   By Clementine Paddleford
   Far off the beaten path of the epicures who eat luncheons of vichyssoise, smoked turkey and caviar in the sterile glitter of air-cooled emporiums, is the Manganaro grocery at 488 Ninth Avenue, famous for heros.  A thousand men and women push, jostle, crowd to the store's long marble counter each noontime to grab up a hero, a cold beer or coffee.  Some seven hundred eat lunch on the spot, another three hundred eat in the street or carry snacks back to their offices.
   You know the hero?  A monster contraption built like a sandwich but of vaster dimensions.  The ordinary size costs 35 cents.  That's half a French loaf of bread, the half split lengthwise, then the filling laid in.  The filling may be proscuitto ham or mozzarele cheese or the two in combination.  You can have tuna fish or sardines or salami.  Some want a double hero, that's a whole loaf of the long French bread split lengthwise, then sandwiched, the price 70 cents.  No mayonnaise, no butter, just bread and plenty of ham, cheese or whatever.  The filling in, the top half of the loaf is clamped on and the whole bundled into a waiting hand.
   Maybe you can find a place to sit at one of the tables--likely not.  Rest your beer on a packing case or over there on the bean bags and gnaw into the tidbit.  First crush the sandwich between the fingers to flatten it out to squeeze between the jaws.  Crumbs from the crisp crust fall to litter the place like brown leaves on the forest floor in late October. (...)